


Of Trees and Changing Leaves

by PeacefulDiscord



Series: It's a Love Story Kakashi/Obito Style [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: But I recommend you do, Fluff, Humor? I'm not sure, M/M, Naruto Founders Gift Exchange 2020, Reincarnation, Slight angst-- only a little, You don’t need to read MadMothMadame’s work to get it or her characters, and her works are so worth it, just because she’s an amazing author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:28:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26081959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeacefulDiscord/pseuds/PeacefulDiscord
Summary: "And all the lives we ever lived and all the lives to be are full of trees and changing leaves..." Virginia Woolf“I was wondering when you were coming home, love.”Obito hadn’t realized he’d been away.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Uchiha Obito, MadMothMadame's Original Character/ MadMothMadame's Original Character, Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
Series: It's a Love Story Kakashi/Obito Style [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2099106
Comments: 10
Kudos: 73





	Of Trees and Changing Leaves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MadMothMadame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadMothMadame/gifts).



> I uhhhh got very carried away. So much for an hour time limit x.x
> 
> If the quality goes down or something it's because I skipped sleep to finish it and not keep prolonging that shouldn't have taken me nearly as long as it did. Some depiction of natural disaster and minor death. These are your only warnings
> 
> Prompt: Autumn is a melancholic time of year, but the quiet kind, like all is at peace with its own decay

Summer, unlike all the other seasons, always seemed more stagnant, at peace with its simple weather and fulfilling the expectations of sweltering heat. It wasn’t like spring with its rain and blooms, autumn with its leaves and sun giving way to chill, or even winter with its rapid fall to ice and snow, as pretty as it was harsh. But then, maybe that’s what made summer even worse-- a deceit laying in accustomed habits when it really had no place for such. Not with its monsoons and floods, its heat strokes and droughts. Obito should've known better. 

He sighed, zipping up his suitcase. “I’m still not sure about this Rin.”

Summer had left him crippled and fall? He had to hope it wouldn't let him rot from the core, eager as it was to feed on the wounds he had yet to heal. Nothing ever grew healthy on its own and yet--

“It’ll be good for you, Bito,” the girl replied, idly looking around the home that would stay empty, where dust will soon cover memories. 

\-- there was nothing to stop the decay.

“This city is my home,” he complained, wrenching his hand-- the only one that still worked, the one that wasn’t a godforsaken prosthetic-- through his hair. “That town-- I won’t have anything there.”

Rin sighed, tired of the argument they had already talked to exhaustion. “You’ll get the treatment you need and the small town life would be better for your condition, you know that. The PTSD isn’t going away and you being here reliving what happened won’t make it any better.”

Obito scowled at the reminder. He was a Coast Guard, it was his job to put himself on the line, to make these types of sacrifices. 

_“I can hardly look at you,” Zetsu had whispered, teary eyed and guilty as he packed his bags to go, as if their relationship was nothing more than an aesthetic. “Everything you did-- it was brave, god, it was so brave Obito but you can’t even, this relationship isn’t anything anymore. You’re not--”_

_Anything anymore. Zetsu didn’t have to say the words for Obito to hear them, to feel the sharpness of them stab through his heart and leave him to bleed._

_The worst part was that it was true-- he was barely more than a shell of a man, bedridden and little more than helpless when there had never been a thing that could stop him before. So Obito had watched him leave silently, disgusted and ashamed and hating himself just a little bit more because for all the lives he had saved, it was the ones that seemed to matter the most that slipped past his fingers and were lost._

He sat silently, tearlessly, as Zetsu threw his newfound disability in his face, let his boyfriend of two years belittle his inability to even be there for him intimately and watched him go through the very doors he couldn’t bear the thought of closing.

And now here he was, closing them permanently, like all the other chapters of his life. His medals stared up at him from their frame and he swallowed the bitterness creeping up his throat. 

Former Coast Guard. He wasn’t one anymore. Couldn’t be one ever again or do much of anything again, not with the entirety of his right side damaged from the wall that had trapped him, fallen over when the water reached too high and tore it down right over him. 

Something like a smile crossed his face despite it-- and he knew it was twisted wrong, that it looked like it hurt but it was only the other day the little girl that had been a part of that rescue mission had sent him a letter. Brightly colored crayoned words thanking him for what he had done, a hand-drawn picture of what was presumably Obito, her and her family, and pet cat in front of her new home pinned to it. 

This city, with all its pain and horror, was still her home.

He wished he could say the same but he couldn’t. Not when the waterside stared back at him like the entrance to his own grave, cold and dragging, filling him until the chill reached his lungs and made them burn. Not when the stone walls around him still made his body ache, screaming in phantom pain and filling his vision with the color of blood. 

Not when his parents and grandmother had vanished with the tide, gone long before his rescue team even landed. Gone before he even had the chance to save them.

The girl and her parents adjusted well though and that was a victory in itself, a little truth that eased his nightmares and flashbacks the moment the rainbow colors and messy writing was in his hands. 

He’d have to keep the letter somewhere safe. 

Slinging the suitcase around his shoulders, he grabbed his crutch and made his way to the door, Rin following behind with another one. Every step echoed against the walls, the scent of his air fresheners long since faded. Already the air began to taste stale. 

“It’ll be okay, Obito, you’ll see,” Rin said softly, helping him deposit his luggage into the cabbie waiting for him. She carefully took his house keys, slipping them into her pocket, before wrapping him in a tight hug. “It’ll all work out. I’ll come visit as often as I can.”

He nodded, pressing his face to her hair, throat a little too tight to speak. There wasn’t anything for him here anymore but Rin and maybe, maybe that should have been enough.

The cab driver pressed on his horn, interrupting them. 

It should have been enough, but it wasn’t. 

With one last smile, he carefully got into the cab, closing his eyes so he wouldn’t have to watch the only place that has ever been home disappear behind him. 

\-----------------------------------------------------------

The town was something straight out of a Hallmark movie, too picturesque with too many people walking around smiling as if they were actually happy about their day even though it was only hours away from the dreary life of a bustling city that didn’t seem unlike the one Obito had just left behind. But maybe even their cities were different-- after all, this state had no floods or hurricanes. Had no memories. Had no Rin. 

The shops and houses were quaint and colorful, fall decorations already strewn about bannisters and stairs, dangling from rooftops as if no one got the memo that Halloween wasn’t coming for almost two more months. Large apple trees and maples towered over every peaking roof, just barely overshadowed by the mountains in the not-so-distant distance, their leaves already tingeing in red and gold. 

As his cab drove along the cobblestone path, almost everyone had stopped to wave, grinning brightly at him through the car window and he was tempted to sink lower into his seat. Why had he let Rin convince him this was a good idea?

It wasn’t that he didn’t like people or all this enthusiasm-- he loved it really, used to make friends with complete strangers and spent many occasions nibbling on some treat or another he got from someone he helped but now that he couldn’t….now that he had something for people to gawk at that went beyond his personality...well, he rather keep his distance. It would be easier to be treated with scorn when he wasn’t close enough to read their eyes or feel the flinch they tried to hide, easier if he wasn’t trying for them to like him and seeing how nothing he did would make that possible. 

Sighing, he stared up at the hill his new home was perched on and promptly swore. It looked nothing like what the pictures or the virtual tour had shown. He fumbled for his phone and looked at the address, then squinted at the number written in the peeling paint. It was the same house. Obito swore again. There was no way this deal was legal. 

The wood and stone exterior was unwelcoming with its depilated appearance; mold, weed, spider webs, and creeping moss stretched over most of the visible surface while the surface itself, from the sagging porch and half-hanging shutters, needed much work. 

He didn’t even want to know what the inside looked like.

Turning around, he opened his mouth to call to the cabbie and instead inhaled a lungful of exhaust fume as the small yellow car peeled away, Obito’s other suitcase laying flat on the ground. Obito swore, kept swearing, nonsensical in his rage even as he coughed, cursing everything from the bastard that sold him this disaster of a house to the fact he’d already paid the driver before he even stepped out of the car. 

It took him a solid minute after he was done cursing the men and their ancestors before he realized he wasn’t alone. A blond-haired man was standing beside him, his hands covering a little girl’s ears. 

He looked at Obito dryly, then at the house and grimaced. “Welcome to the neighborhood. I’m Yamanaka Reiki and this is my niece, Ino. I see that you were tricked into buying this crap. Here, we live just a little down the street, you can stay for a bit before you try and deal with this dump.”

Obito looked at the man with his long hair and ear piercings, looking somehow welcoming and dangerous in all his cuteness, and sighed. Even if the man was some sort of serial killer, he really didn’t have much of a choice. This disaster really was his life now.

That night, as he lay in a bed that felt almost ridiculously soft, he dreamt of red eyes and silver-white hair, a tall, lanky form bundled in blue with a fluffy fur along the neckline. 

_They were in a park, he realized, the trees laying bare but for the piles of snow coating dead branches. The sky seemed to blend into the earth, greys and whites mixing together._

_His neighbor Reiki-- **Ishohi** , his mind corrected-- was standing beside him, looking woefully unimpressed as he tutted disapprovingly at him. Or not him. It was him but it wasn’t-- his body was different, broader and more muscled with a shorter stature and much longer hair that would have never seen a day in the military._

_“Come on, this is how you go to meet people?” Ishohi gestured to his outfit in bewilderment, and in all honesty, Obito could understand. He was wearing a thick grey flannel over a long, dark violet turtleneck shirt with jeans that, for some reason, were tucked beneath his fluffy socks._

_He could feel himself arching a brow and he crossed his arms almost petulantly. “I thought love wasn’t about appearances, Yamanaka.”_

_“It’s not but--!”_

_“Then it’s not my problem if he doesn’t like what he sees.”_

_“You mean like Zetsu?” Ishohi asked sharply, and Obito winced, turning away. Something about the words felt like his break-up all over again, an old wound tearing along the same place it had healed over. Ishohi sighed, reaching out apologetically. “Madara, really. Just give him a chance. Yano says you and Tobirama will get along famously,”_

_Obito/Madara nudged at the snow by his feet, letting his reluctance make the other man stew in his impatience. “Fine.”_

_He refused to feel warmed by the bright smile his friend gave him, letting the man drag him through the snow and along the park’s central path as if he were being led to his death rather than a blind date._

_A man in blue stood by the fountain, seemingly unbothered by the winter chill, his ungloved hand trailing through the water. Red eyes like scarlet, sparkling more than the Christmas lights, peered up at him, accessing, and Obito felt his breath catch._

When he woke, squinting against the sunshine and sounds of Ino running around with her friends, he could only wonder why, when he was so far away from all he had ever known, looking at the man had somehow felt like coming home.

\---------------------------------------------

Reiki’s husband Nara Naoya-- and the remnants of the dream from weeks before begged him to think _Yano_ instead-- frowned from behind his purple scarf. “We should have Hatake deal with this electrical shit. So bothersome.”

He was an odd man, though not much different from what the dream showed him to be. The type of person that seemed to care for nothing while caring almost too much for practically everything. Overly smart and capable-- thus why Reiki had him doing electrical work when he was an analyst by trade-- but much too lazy to really want to do anything about it, content to stare at the clouds even while his eyes gave away how his mind was on a hundred different things. 

Reiki sighed, pausing where he was crouched over the hose. “But you know how to do it, too.”

“Not as well or as quickly.” Naoya quickly walked over, leaning down beside Reiki and putting together the machine the other was struggling with easily. 

The Yamanaka smiled a little fondly, brushing his thumb across the scar on his husband’s face in thanks, watching as the man blushed and cleared his throat. “I should really call him, Rei.”

“I already did. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

“Then why...never mind. Let’s pressure wash this walkway.”

Obito rubbed at his forehead. This song and dance of theirs was one of the most peculiar that he’d ever come across-- like they were reading each other’s minds but spoke only so that everyone else could keep up. 

“Who?” He asked. It wouldn’t be the first time a complete stranger just appeared at his house thanks to one of these two men he somehow befriended. 

He couldn’t complain, not really, when the two men and even some of their other family members had been kind enough to drag themselves over to the wreck that was his new house and help him fix it so it wasn’t just livable but somewhere to call home. The depilated walls now stood stronger, the fresh coat of light orange paint making it look brand new while the porch had been rebuilt altogether, white-painted boards and bannisters sturdy with well-crafted pieces. Many features like the cabinets in the kitchens and bathrooms to the wooden floors and plumbing needed to be fixed or replaced and, within a few days, every last thing had been taken care of. They had even helped him with moving in the furniture he’d ordered. Now all that was left was some electrical work and tidying up the yard.

“Hatake Kakashi. The electrician,” Naoya drawled.

Obito blinked. The name was familiar. But where had he heard it--?

“Yo.”

The Uchiha turned around, startled at the sudden voice piping up behind him. A lanky man with silver-white hair (just like Tobirama's) was peering at him from above a face mask, gray eyes squinted in what could maybe be a smile. He raised a toolbox. 

“Electrical work?”

At Obito’s nod, still shocked silent by the man’s sudden appearance, Kakashi passed by him, barely waving at Reiki and Naoya before slipping into the house silently. Now he remembered. The man was the town’s token hermit-- prodigious, aloof, and an apparent holder of a really sketchy work history-- had somehow been able to avoid the thrall of the too-nice people to make friends with no one other than Maito Gai (a man so painfully obtuse and hyper that every conversation Obito had had with him has only made him want to bury himself alive). 

That man was now in his house. 

It took an embarrassingly long moment for Obito to catch himself, swearing slightly as he trudged his way up the path, already familiar with his crutch on the pebbled ground to make it without stumbling. Inside Kakashi was already at work, bent over a light switch and separating the wires.

“Breaker’s off. Do I get food and vegetables too?” The man asked as he fiddled with the wires. 

“Huh?” Obito blinked. “Oh yeah! I mean, if you want them. It’ll take awhile, I haven’t even planted my garden yet but the soil looks good for it.”

As he looked around, he realized that Naoya must have told Kakashi what needed fixing as every spot of issue had a piece of duct tape stuck to it or was already hanging open. Which meant he probably also told him how the Nara and Yamanaka families had refused payment for their help, barely budging enough to let Obito cook all their meals for them while they were there working. That promise of vegetables though, that had been the only other contribution they accepted and only so under the lie that Obito always grew more than he needed. Still, it was rather audacious for the man to _ask_ for it. What if Obito didn't have anything to cook or if his garden didn’t bear so much produce?

Before he let his annoyance get to him, he bit his tongue. He couldn’t fuss. Food was hardly fair payment given all the work Kakashi would be doing-- any other electrician would’ve charged him at least a couple hundred. With a polite hum, he expressed his agreement.

“Would you like something to eat now or when you’re finished?” He asked as he inched his way towards the kitchen, mentally going through his checklist of what he had and didn’t have. 

There was a lot he didn’t have.

“Either.”

The non-answer was really helpful. He rolled his eyes. 

“It’ll have to be later then. I need to stop by the market.”

Kakashi paused, hands finally freezing as he finally looked at Obito. “I’ll come with.”

Apparently even the weird recluse in town was somehow overly friendly. Obito just waved him along.

The market, only a half hour’s walk away, was a series of colorful stalls manned by overly friendly people with their families set up around a pavilion in the center of the town, the large stone columns looking both fitting and out of place in the village-like design of everything else. It felt longer this time, as if the roads had stretched, as he and Kakashi made their way to it with nay a word passing between them despite Obito’s basket being in the electrician’s hands. Time seemed to start again, breaking that syrupy standstill like molasses peeling from ice, the moment the music and laughter met their ears. Children ran around playing, the entire expanse of sky and earth their playground with the way their kites and toys were strewn about, littering and filling the green and blue.

Every stall, every transaction, came with at least a ten-minute conversation, until Obito was starting to feel like himself again. It was easy to smile with these people, easy to forget the way his lips were crooked and could no longer stretch all the way across his face as they once did. But that was okay. These people didn’t seem to see that, more comfortable with touching his damaged skin than his ex was with looking at it. 

But still he and Kakashi didn’t speak to each other. 

“I need to rest a bit,” he huffed out, once the shopping was done, the pain in his leg starting to creep up along his body and making the muscles lock. “Just a few minutes.”

Kakashi nodded, leading him to the pavilion steps before setting the basket down and helping Obito settle down beside them. 

“This place hasn’t changed at all,” Kakashi murmured. “Not really.”

“Hm?” Obito looked at him in surprise.

“The pavilion, the market, it’s the same.”

“Oh.”

Obito racked his brain for something else to say but couldn’t think of anything before Kakashi turned his attention away, fingers tapping at his phone screen. Sighing, Obito went back to stretching, feeling his muscles pull and tense before relaxing. He let himself breathe through the pain, the tightness in his chest loosening as it eased. He was just finishing up when his ears caught onto someone’s music playing softly and suddenly it was like he had fallen back in time, back into that dream. 

He was Madara again.

_The sky was dark, tumultuous black clouds casting the whole world in shadow as the rain poured down on around them. They had been coming back from a children’s charity when the wind had picked up, clouds finally breaking and snatching the umbrella from their hands. No shelter had been nearby, the town not nearly as developed as Obito was seeing it to be, and the icy water bit into their skin. Linking fingers, they took off towards the pavilion, slipping on the slick grass and sticky puddles in the dark until they’d finally managed to make it up the stairs and under the roof._

_He was soaked, hair pasting to his skin uncomfortably, and Tobirama looked no better, his usual gravity-defying hair laying flat on his head. Their clothes were spotted with dirt and leaves but for some reason, instead of trying to find a way to get home, he turned the old battery-powered radio on, stretching his hand out to the other man._

_“Want to dance?”_

_Tobirama smiled, crookedly soft, looking at the storm before throwing his head back with a laugh. Placing his hand in Madara’s and he let himself be tugged close, nearly colliding if not for his own graceful steps._

_For one song, two, they spun around, limbs flying about theatrically as they tangoed across the pavilion. Their laughter seemed to get lost in the wind and rain but they only laughed louder, shaking into heaps on the ground whenever they lost their footing. Still they got up and danced._

_Then the music changed, slowing down as the song lyrics painted tales of falling in love, and their bodies seemed to fall in line with the tempo. Pressing their foreheads together, eyes slipping shut, they slowly rocked with each other, hearts and breaths matching as they embraced._

_The rain came and left and still they danced, already warm._

_Like this, they had no reason to remember the world that had long slipped away._

Someone cleared their throat and suddenly the sky was bright again, shouts and laughter filling Obito’s ears like white noise. Kakashi was looking at him in what could be concern-- that damned mask really didn’t allow for many clues-- his hand reaching out to touch him. 

“Are you okay? Was it the music?” Kakashi asked cautiously, tapping on his phone and cutting off the song. Obito wanted to protest; he wasn’t done dancing and Tobirama-- 

Tobirama wasn’t real.

“I’m fine,” Obito muttered. “Let’s go home.”

Kakashi hesitated for a moment before nodding. “Give me a moment.” 

Before Obito could say anything, the other man was up and by the road, hand in the air to hail a small cab. When the yellow car pulled up, he leaned in the window to speak for a few moments before returning to Obito’s side and grabbing the basket.

“Do you need help?” he murmured.

Obito shook his head but let the man lead him to the car and help him in. 

The car ride back was as silent as the walk to the market and Kakashi calling out to Naoya as soon as they arrived. 

“He’ll pay you,” the electrician gestured to the Nara, hastily helping Obito out and into the house even as the other man grumbled behind them. 

“I could’ve paid,” Obito protested.

Kakashi shrugged, pulling a chair out for Obito to sit on. “Naoya’s rich.” And then he turned and returned to his work as if that sentence alone marked the end of their discussion.

They didn’t speak much after that, Kakashi going back to his work and Obito working on preparing the vegetables for dinner. When night had fallen-- Naoya and Reiki long gone, dinner simmering on the stove, and the house was all but completely rewired-- Kakashi came to bid Obito good night.

“Aren’t you staying for dinner?” Obito asked, confused and more than a touch aggravated. He had cooked far more than he alone would eat and, well, he didn’t want to be alone. Not yet. 

Kakashi was silent for a moment. “Nah, I’m not hungry. Maybe next time.”

Obito frowned, but saw the man to the door, remembering his manners well enough to thank him quietly.

It was a silly thought but, as he watched the other man disappear into the night, the light of his hair swallowed by the shadows, Obito couldn’t help but feel like a part of himself just vanished too.

\--------------------------------------------------

By the time fall had fully rolled around, Obito hadn’t seen much of Kakashi again, brief glimpses that could very well have been hallucinations if Obito doubted his sanity more than he already did. Somehow though, he had found himself spending as much time with Reiki and his family as he did when he was staying with them despite finally having a proper home to live in. He’d even ended up finding other family members that lived here-- which meant catching up and getting to know each other _and_ spending more time with their friends. Their “married with children” friends. 

Meaning, spending a ridiculous amount of time humoring the toddlers that always seemed to be around. 

Meaning, constant babysitting. As the curse of being the only unmarried/childless bastard was made to suffer through. 

He needed new friends.

“Please Uncle Obito, just a few minutes?” Ino begged, lips pouting as she clasped one of his hands between both of hers. “We’ll be good! Even Naruto!”

He’d told Inoichi not to dress his daughter as an angel, that the little girl was a devil in disguise with master-class deception skills. The young boy she’d all but thrown under the bus didn’t even complain, just nodded his head and gave Obito that unfairly adorable puppy-dog look none of the other brats could manage pulling off. The cute little fox costume he wore definitely didn’t help Obito’s resolve either. 

He looked at the parents that gave him equally pleading looks and sighed. “Fine, get your bags. I’ll take you to the fair.”

Obito wasn’t sure who looked happier, the kids or their exhausted parents, but he scowled. His bleeding heart was really starting to ruin the Uchiha name for stoicism. 

“Can we get candy apples?” Choji asked.

“You just had food, Choji. That was your second dinner, remember?” Obito sighed, grimacing at the way his hands were still sticky from the sauces the boy had forgotten to wipe off his hands before grabbing Obito’s. 

“Yeah, so it’d be dessert,” he said, smiling brightly at him. 

“You _had_ dessert. Three different snacks ago.” 

He was finally understanding why Karui gave him money for food on top of a packed meal for the little boy. The boy’s smile slowly fell, tears beading in his eyes, and Obito quickly shoved money at the vendor. The tears vanished immediately as Choji bit into his apple, already wandering off to go look at something else.

Why did he agree to this? Who let him make such bad life choices?

The fair itself was beautiful, twinkling lights strung across what was usually the market area, with game, food, and craft stalls lined up in a semi-circle around the temporary rides, their own colorful lights casting a soft glow on everything around them. All the vendors had bags upon bags of candy to share with the kids, often slipping in a little toy or a bit of whatever merchandise they had into the bags as well. 

If it weren’t for his newfound babysitting gig, he would’ve loved to just sit down on the grass and admire the sight. 

“Are you tired?” Shikamaru looked up at him, the dragon face paint curling like a scar along his cheek and over his eyebrow startling Obito for a moment. “Kids are bothersome.”

Naruto looked over then, finally letting go of Gaara and Hinata’s hands-- something that made Obito’s newfound little cousin Sasuke sulk. Two other sets of worried eyes looked at him from behind a raccoon and butterfly mask and even Sasuke seemed to snap out of his sulking long enough to eye him critically. 

“You’re tired, Obi-nii?”

The little boy didn’t wait for an answer, running to his parents and brothers who had come along to try to help Obito. 

“Kaa-chan! Tou-chan! Ruka-nii! Obi-nii is tired!”

His protests fell on deaf ears as Tsume and Shikaku approached as well, shooing Obito away and taking over, reenergized now that they had a couple hours of peace.

“Go on, Obito. Try a hay ride or something. It’s not like they have that in the city,” Iruka suggested, smiling even as he shifted his hold on the youngest Uzumaki bundled up in his arms. 

“Is Menma still sleeping?” Naruto whispered loudly, tugging on his adopted older brother’s shirt. Iruka nodded, ruffling Naruto’s hair. 

“I think Kakashi’s driving the carriage. Why don’t you borrow my phone and call Gai and tell him to get Kakashi to come over, hm?”

“Okay!”

Within minutes, Obito was being “helped” (forced) onto the hay carriage, Kakashi quietly lounging in the saddle as he watched the dramatics unfold. 

“Anyone else?” he asked when Obito had been situated. 

“No, that’s okay Kakashi. I think we will be getting these kids to bed soon,” Minato smiled, pulling Naruto onto his back. “Show Obito around though! It’s a beautiful night and he needs a break.”

“I’m fi--” Obito yelped as the carriage jerked forward, Kakashi waving as he led them away. Huffing, the Uchiha blew the hay out from his face. “Can’t you give a guy a warning?”

“Nope.”

Obito glared but said nothing, choosing to lay down instead as they grew further and further away from the noise of the fair. 

“Where are we going?” he hummed, a little sleepily as he stared up at the sky. The stars sparkled like crystals, clearer in the countryside than the pollution of city life could ever allow. He reached out, feeling for a heartbeat, that if he tried hard enough, he could touch one. Capture it in his palm and hold it close to his chest. 

_“And then you’ll be able to make wishes all the time!” A little girl with chestnut brown hair grinned toothily at him._

_“That’s right, Kimiko. Whenever you have a wish, the star would be right there in your heart, ready to make it come true.”_

_Tobirama smiled up at him from where he sat huddled with their other kids, rolling his eyes fondly. “I suppose we should all try to catch a star then?”_

_“Yes!” Kagami leapt up. “I’ve my telescope, we’ll be able to find them easier too!”_

_At the boy’s enthusiasm, the other kids also grew more excited, hands folded together as they pleaded with their dads to take them to the mountain ridge to see the stars. Two minutes top and they were caving, tying shoes and buckling the kids into the car._

_When they made it to the open field, the kids jumped out, shoes kicked off and falling onto the soft grass to point at the constellations and choose which stars they wanted._

_Tobirama and he followed at a more sedate pace, fingers locked._

_“Most kids wouldn’t be so eager to go to their parents’ favorite date place,” the younger man laughed._

_“Most people have lame dates,” Obito as Madara laughed, feeling a little smug._

_Tobirama snorted. “Right. Of course. We clearly had the superior dates.”_

_“Exactly.”_

_They grew quiet for a moment, watching their children play and shriek as lightning bugs started to flicker around them._

_Tobirama reached out towards the sky, carefully closing his fingers and drawing his hand back close to his heart. “If I lived again, I’d wish for this happiness again.”_

“Me too,” Obito murmured, eyes blinking open. Above him the stars and lightning bugs seemed to dance together, weaving a choreographed dance only they knew.

“You’d what?” A voice asked softly. 

A voice that wasn’t Tobirama’s.

Kakashi looked at him in concern, curling towards him from where he had been sitting at the front of the carriage, having apparently made himself comfortable on the hay even with the reins still in hand. 

Obito jerked upwards, wincing at the pain that shot through his side. He must’ve fallen asleep for a few moments. They were no longer by the fair, the open field around them uncanny to the one in his dreams. For a moment, he could still hear the kids laughing, could see the adoration in Tobirama’s red eyes in Kakashi’s grey, and his heart stuttered painfully. 

He brushed off Kakashi's concern, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

He wished for that happiness too.

\-----------------------------------------------------

The last time they were together seemed to shift the dynamic of Kakashi and Obito’s relationship despite nothing having really changed in that interaction, a slow descent of being strangers to being friends, like the early melting of winter into blossoming spring. Somehow those passing glimpses became small conversation, quiet debates over books and sports and to whispered fears and secrets, dreams and hopes and stupid jokes until the day saw them beginning and ending with talking to each other. 

Kakashi even managed the impossible: persuading him to give Gai a long enough chance to learn that the man was a physical therapist and a hell of a good one at that. It had only been a few months of treatment but already Obito had lost the crutches, able to walk, albeit stiltedly, on his own. And Obito was able to get the electrician to stop hiding away in his home so much, pale skin finally seeing the sun for more than the few scant moments it took to shop, pay bills or pass between houses for work.

They’d grown together, like flowers on the same plant. Obito could only hope the autumn decay, peaceful as it could be, wouldn’t meet their roots. Wouldn’t make their petals brown and fall, sinking back to earth with little chance at regrowing.

“I find this to be an interesting development,” Reiki said lightly.

For the first time in the year that Obito lived there, they were actually hanging out at Obito’s house, sprawled out on blankets and pillows in front of the roaring fireplace to chase away the chill of a too-soon winter that threatened to freeze their bones. The Yamanaka leaned on the couch, one earbud in so he could listen to some other dreary medical presentation and his hands preoccupied with knitting a purple scarf that he insisted Obito _must have_ now that he had practically become family. 

“I think the constant alerts on Obito’s phone gave it away,” Naoya drawled, roasting a marshmallow over the flames. Chocolate and graham crackers were strewn beside him.

“I knew for sure when they started going to the market together.”

“Oh yeah. Asuma had his suspicions when they went to that play.”

“I think Mikoto realized when they offered to take the kids out trick-or-treating.”

“Kurenai said she won’t be surprised if they came to Thanksgiving together.”

“Really, it’s only Gai who seems to haven’t noticed anything. Even Genma and Raido noticed and they don’t even live here anymore.”

“Even when they did, it’s not like they noticed much besides each other,” Naoya carefully put together a smore, holding it up for Reiki to bite into. 

Obito just watched them in bewilderment, not even the beeping of his phone drawing his attention away from the two men that saw fit to have some type of discreet but not-discreet conversation in front of him. “What are you two talking about?”

“What’s Kakashi up to, Bito?” Reiki asked instead. 

“Umm…” he glanced at his phone. “He’s making pumpkin pie.”

Reiki hummed, glancing at Naoya. “Can I tell him?”

The man sighed. “No, you shouldn’t.”

“But--!”

“They’ll figure it out,” the Nara tucked his husband’s hair behind his ear. “And we should really be heading home now. Obito’s got a date planned.”

“It’s hardly a date,” Obito muttered distractedly, reading the text Kakashi sent. “You wouldn’t put black pepper in pumpkin pie, would you? No, that’s weird. Don’t do that.” He typed out a quick reply, lamenting the man’s need to experiment in every aspect of his life. 

When he looked up, Naoya and Reiki had packed their things, the marshmallows and other sweets organized neatly on the center table. “Oh, are you leaving? Already?”

“It’s two in the morning, Bito. With all that time on your phone, you didn’t notice?” Reiki laughed, hugging him when he stood up. “We’ll see you later at normal human hours.”

He rubbed his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, yeah, shut up. I’ll see you later.”

“Maybe,” Naoya snorted. “Tell Kakashi to bring normal pie to dinner, please.”

“Uh sure?” Obito led them out, still confused but much too tired to think much of it. Closing the door behind them, he went back to the living room, sinking down into the blankets again. The firewood was becoming more ash than fuel and it wouldn’t hurt to soak up the last remnants of heat before heading to bed. 

Letting his eyes fall shut, he settled more comfortably into the soft cocoon he’d built around himself and hoped for another dream of the life that felt like his, even if he were quietly thankful that for all that they seemed similar, this house was his alone. Madara and Tobirama’s wasn’t anywhere in town that he could find, something that had equal parts reassuring him as it had making him sad.

He only wished for a love like theirs.

_He was by the fireplace, hair even whiter than Tobirama’s, and when he turned to look at the door opening behind him, he realized he was distinctly older, limbs more frail than he’d ever known them to be._

_Two cups of tea sat steaming on the table, a thick photo album between them. When those red eyes met his dark ones, landing on him the moment Tobirama walked through the door, those now shaky hands lifted one cup up to offer the younger man. “I was wondering when you would come home, koibito.”_

_Tobirama smiled, the swiftness of his youth long gone though it still felt as though he were hurrying to reach him, eager to sink into his embrace. “It was a rather...eventful day. After all the meetings and paperwork, Sakumo approached me with some concerns. He was telling me that he and his wife were considering having children and they wondered if it were manageable given his new appointment as mayor.”_

_Waiting until the cup was firmly in Tobirama’s hands, Madara wrapped his arms around his husband, pressing a light kiss to his temple. “Did you tell them that Hashirama, you and I, even Saru all managed to juggle our official jobs while raising all our brats?”_

_“I did. I even told him how marrying you was like being a single parent,” Tobirama teased. Shushing Madara’s protesting squawk with a returning kiss of his own, he glanced at the pictures beside them. “A trip down memory lane, love?”_

_“I was feeling a little nostalgic,” Madara murmured. “Look through them with me?”_

_At Tobirama’s assenting hum, Madara flipped the book back to the first page. When every page had been turned, every memory remembered, they placed their cups down, curling together on the blankets and falling asleep the way they had done for over fifty years. Calm and familiar and as easy as their heart beats._

_And as day broke, sunlight scattering through the curtains to cast them in a halo, their breaths evened out to stillness._

Obito woke with tears in his eyes, trying to blink them back but feeling them fall down his cheeks. 

\------------------------------------------------

He was late, more so than usual, when he finally broke through the bushes that blocked off the path. Kakashi was already waiting, sitting patiently on a checkered picnic blanket by the small waterfall, feet dipped into the pond and kicking gently, his awful taste in literature open in one hand and a thermos cup of what smelled like chai in hand.

Those grey eyes-- grey eyes that didn’t just look like they had been red but once had been, in another time, another life-- turned to look at him, expectant, before Pakkun even noticed Obito’s presence and began barking, and suddenly it was like getting struck by lightning. It was familiar, memorable in a way a few months of friendship didn’t make. He knew that lanky form. He knew that warm embrace and that dry, wicked humor. He knew that intelligence and easy compatibility, a trial the first time around for a little while until it became a habit. 

And, most importantly, he knew that love.

“Tobirama?” He croaked. God, he must have lost his mind. He had to have. But still he stared into those grey eyes, kept staring and hoping. The dreams couldn’t end like this.

Kakashi smiled with his eyes, holding the cup out to Obito. “I was wondering when you were coming home, love.”

**Author's Note:**

> Omake:
> 
> "So Gai... is he Hashirama?" Obito asked, sipping on his tea. 
> 
> Kakashi shuddered. "Has to be. He's got that awful bowl cut."
> 
> \------------------
> 
> Sooooo what did you guys think? Decent gift or nah? 
> 
> Hope you're all staying safe! <3


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